NEW YORK: A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Tuesday to halt efforts to shut down Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, whose news broadcasts are funded by the government to export US values to the world.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth, who is overseeing six lawsuits from employees and contractors affected by the shutdown of US Agency for Global Media, ordered the administration to “take all necessary steps” to restore employees and contractors to their positions and resume radio, television and online news broadcasts.
USAGM placed over 1,000 employees on leave and told 600 contractors they would be terminated after the agency abruptly shut down the broadcasts in March.
The ruling was a “significant victory for press freedom,” said Andrew Celli, an attorney representing VOA employees in the lawsuits.
USAGM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
VOA was founded to combat Nazi propaganda at the height of World War Two, and has become a major international media broadcaster.
Congress has funded and authorized the broadcasts to provide an “accurate, objective, and comprehensive” source of news in other nations and export the “cardinal American values of free speech, freedom of the press, and open debate,” Lamberth wrote. Congress made the broadcasts mandatory and did not allow the executive branch to unilaterally terminate or defund them, he ruled.
Trump adviser Kari Lake announced the shutdown on March 15, placing nearly all USAGM employees on leave, saying the agency was “irretrievably broken” and biased against US President Donald Trump.
Lamberth rejected USAGM’s arguments in court that it had not made a “final decision” on the future of the broadcasts and that the lawsuits should be handled has a series of “employment disputes” with terminated workers.
“It strains credulity to conclude the USAGM is ‘still standing’ when its 80-year-old flagship news service, VOA, has gone completely dark with no signs of returning,” Lamberth wrote.
Lamberth heard arguments from lawyers for VOA employees and the Trump administration on Thursday. He asked several questions probing Trump’s statements indicating that VOA’s news coverage was too critical of America and personally of him.
“I thought that one of the strengths of Voice of America was that it had the nerve to tell the truth about America,” Lamberth said.
Lamberth also pointed out that Trump had signed stopgap government funding measure last month that appropriated funds for USAGM. Trump had not vetoed the spending bill or asked Congress to rescind that funding, Lamberth said.
As a group, USAGM had about 3,500 employers and an $886 million budget in 2024, according to its latest report to Congress.